My dear and talented friend Julie is a composer and she recently shared with me that composers often find inspiration while in transit. It’s so beautiful to know that melodies and scores are birthed from the sounds and rhythms of a subway car, a drive, the physical act of walking and the syncopated beat of footsteps, your own or those around you.

I was sitting here replaying the poetry of her words, visualizing and understanding that word picture she shared with me and I remembered the start of a blog post I never wrote. It began like…

There’s something about the physical act of going from one destination to another that always causes me to sit back and think about where I’m headed in life. My dreams and decisions are birthed in the forced stillness of an airplane covering long distances and crossing timelines…it’s as if being in physical transit makes dreams feel within reach and closer than I’d imagined…

I was in my early 20s and recently out of college so I’m sure it was more florid. I was so lost in those two first sentences and the idea of the story I could write, that I actually pitched it to the Huffington Post Editor at the time. It was the mom of the family I babysat for and for a moment I wanted to be a faith/Latina/millennial blogger. She replied, “Sounds interesting. Write it and send it to me.” I felt a rush of excitement at the promise of the unknown, as I assured her I would write it and email it to her as soon as I got home. The problem was, once back home in the Land of Familiar, I remembered I hadn’t majored in journalism or English at school so what did I know about writing? I let feelings of inadequacy discourage me from writing what might have been published. The door closed and since it had only been a passing thought on a plane ride out to LA to babysit, I let it close and never looked back.

Joyce Meyer, in her book, Battlefield of the Mind, talks about how we often let our reasoning keep us from believing what God has spoken to our hearts and shows us what’s really happening:

“As Christians, we need to learn to decide to believe. God often gives us faith (a product of the Spirit) for things that our minds just can’t always seem to come into agreement with…The devil never runs out of fiery darts to throw against us when we are trying to go forward.” (p.59, Ch. 6)

At the time, I didn’t believe I could write the blog post I wanted to write because it would be scrutinized and found wanting. Many of us miss opportunities and fail to walk through open doors because we think we aren’t ready- we don’t have the right background, we have made too many mistakes, we didn’t study enough, we didn’t make the right decision, we picked the wrong major or the wrong college, we didn’t finish college…all the reasons/darts that the enemy throws our way when we are trying to go forward into what God has called us to do. I’m sure you can think of many other “reasons” we’ve heard that have prevented us from stepping forward and reaching towards dreams and visions God has placed in your heart.

Here’s the GOOD NEWS:

“But forget all that– it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43: 18-19 (NLT)

“…Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rain He sends demonstrates His faithfulness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil. The LORD says, “I will give you back what you lost…” Joel 2: 23b-25a (NLT)

I will exalt you, LORD, for you rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me…You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever! Psalm 30: 1, 11-12 (NLT)

There’s actually so much Good News, it was really hard to just stick to 3 Bible verses. Open up your Bible today and I guarantee you’re bound to land on at least 1 of his 3000-5000 promises! And those promises are all yours, in Christ Jesus, so don’t let go of what is yours! Our God promises us, “I will give you back what you lost.” That means the big stuff- the big opportunities we thought passed us by, that are really circling around for us waiting for us to step out in faith for, and even the small things we’ve forgotten we lost, like the blog post I never wrote.

In a divine reminder of restoration and His loving-kindness towards me, as Julie spoke the words of birthing creativity in movement and transit she breathed life into the whisper of a story never written and never told. I agree with Mark Batterson, when he says in The Circle Maker, “God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is too small for Him.” (p.115, Ch. 10)

He restores EVERY thing that was lost because Jesus accomplished total restoration on the Cross for us and we, who are in Christ, are now co-heirs of all the promises found in the Word of God. His love for us is HUGE and ENDLESS. And the best is that what God has placed in you and what He has for you can never be lost because He said it in His WORD:

For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Romans 11:29 (NLT)

Kairos Moment: What I didn’t write in my 20s isn’t lost but is now transformed and made richer in my 30s. Next week, I’ll share about being in transit by taking steps of faith but also about being in stillness to hear His voice and I’ll start the post with two very simple lines etched in memory and brought back to remembrance by a Father who always loves and always speaks.